1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle sharing system for allowing a plurality of users to share electric vehicles which can be operated by electric power supplied from a battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, automobiles play an important role as an indispensable means for allowing people to move in and beyond local areas, and the number of automobiles being used keeps growing. The increasing number of automobiles being used not only causes serious traffic jams, but also demands more and more parking spaces. For example, medium-size cities in the outskirts of larger cities need parking spaces near stations for automobiles that are used by people who take commuter trains. However, automobiles in such parking spaces remain parked in the daytime, and are usually driven in and out of the parking lots early morning and evening for taking commuter trains and going home.
In view of such a wasteful way of using automobiles, there has been a demand for a system which allows users to rent automobiles only when necessary. In the presently available automobile rental system, a user fills out an application paper at an automobile rental company to rent an automobile, receives the key of the automobile, uses it for a desired period of time, and finally returns the automobile to the automobile rental company. This automobile rental system allows users to use automobiles only when necessary though the process to apply for the renting of automobiles is somewhat complex.
Efforts are currently being made to develop electric vehicles which are less harmful in terms of air pollution and noise than automobiles which run on fossil fuels such as gasoline, though the electric vehicles are still more expensive than the present automobiles. If electric vehicles can be shared by a plurality of users, then such a sharing system is highly economical and produces other advantages including protection against air pollution and noise.
One disadvantage of such a sharing system, however, is that batteries required to supply electric power to operate electric vehicles need to be charged to a sufficient level before they are used.